Hi guys, sorry for the long wait. I've somewhat exhausted my creative juices after blowing through Cat 1-9. Things are slowly going back to normal and the pace should pick up.
Thanks as usual to bikoukumori, for squashing bugs and offering sound advice.
And again, only adults having fun here.
#10 Awakening
Shine's hands held mine in a death grip while we sat in the back seat of a cab, driving again to Tempelhof market. She was shaking like a leaf, her hands felt cold and clammy. I had my other arm draped around her shoulder and half-hugged her shivering frame close to me.
"Parker, I don't want to go blind again," Shine whispered over the hum of the electric cab. "It was absolutely terrifying back then when I was innocent but now..."
"It will all be alright. Maybe your eye just shorted out or something," I hazarded.
Shine vehemently shook her head.
"No. I've had these eyes since day one. I've showered with them, I even dropped the right one once and still they work. It has to be something else," she muttered, her hands nearly crushing mine.
"But what else could it be," I asked, my hand caressing her neck. She melted against me.
"I don't want to think about it. But I'm so glad you're with me right now. Alone, I would have totally gone apeshit."
"Glad I can be of service," I chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.
Progress towards Tempelhof became painfully slow. Cars were cluttering up the road, police and ambulance vehicles were everywhere and the amount of heavily armed people was scary.
"Sorry guys but this is as close as I can manage," the cab driver said, turning in his seat. I leaned forwards and looked through the windshield. In front of us, two armored troop transports were blocking the road and grim-faced Bundespolizei officers were turning away people.
"That's fine," Shine said, pulling out her battered wallet. She paid the cabbie and we exited the car.
"That's quite a commotion," Shine quipped, threading her arm through my offered elbow, looking at the bustle of people all around us.
"And with these guys around, getting to Fleischer is nigh impossible, huh," I asked. Fleischer wasn't my first idea when we discussed how best to check her vanished eyesight. I would happily have escorted her to a municipal hospital but Shine reminded me that she didn't have a health insurance or any kind of valid ID for that matter. Plus, if someone knew what could have happened to her, then it would be Fleischer. He had invented this cursed eye-jack in the first place.
"There are numerous ways in and out of this place. They can't have locked them all up," Shine said, marching off to the side, towards a dark alleyway. Hesitantly, I followed her, admiring her courage. Even with only one working cyberoptic, she moved as if she owned the place. At the mouth of the alley, Shine stopped and fumbled in the pocket of her shiny, silvery baseball jacket, producing a huge, clunky pistol.
"Umm, do you think this is necessary," I asked her. She checked the magazine then handed the surprisingly beefy weapon my way.
"Absolutely. And with my depth perception gone to hell, you need to be my bodyguard," Shine smirked.
"You know, the only place where I've even toyed with the idea of using a weapon was cyberspace," I weakly explained. "And even then it was mostly melee weapons."
"Hey, just point and shoot, okay? And don't fire more than six shots in rapid succession or the whole thing might melt down." Shine grinned when I nearly dropped the weapon like it was about to bite me. Then she turned her back on me and slipped into a small throughfare between two buildings. It was a tight fit for her and claustrophobically narrow for me but eventually we arrived at Tempelhof market proper.
Compared to the last time I was here, things were practically dead. Most of the interesting stalls were closed down, only a few food joints were open and obviously hoping to sell some of their dubious wares to the roving swarms of police and EMTs that were all over the place.
"What the hell happened here," Shine whispered, awe and terror mixed in her voice, looking around. Soon, we found the answer. One of the stalls, with a stage out in front, looked like Swiss cheese, the corrugated iron walls riddled with bullet holes. There were no yellow "Crime Scene – Do Not Cross" tapes littered all over the place but I guessed the metal grates and armed policemen closing down the place served the same purpose.
Shine motioned me to follow and ducked behind two closed stalls. I followed her as she made her way around the locked-down site, avoiding police as much as possible. Eventually, we arrived at the door to Fleischer's RV. Breathing a sigh of relief, Shine knocked at the door, which immediately flew open.
Fleischer looked even older than the last time I'd met him. His hair was a mess and he sported a massive black eye. Instead of a welcome, he almost brutally hugged Shine to his chest before holding her at arm's length.
"Oh, good, you're unharmed," he breathed.
"Mind telling me what happened," Shine quipped, pushing past Fleischer into his RV.
"Hey, what's up, doc," I joked, offering my hand for a shake which he ignored with a snort. Once we were in, he closed and locked the door.
"What happened? The fucking Apocalypse, that's what happened," Fleischer almost screamed.
"Someone thought it a good idea to have a little shootout with Serge the Slaver," he continued, a little less freaked-out.
"Who is that," I asked but slowly it dawned on me that maybe I, or more precisely this "Arach" person, had something to do with all of this.
"'Who
was
that?' would be more appropriate," Fleischer huffed. "Serge was the one selling bodysculpted sex toys across from here. A surprisingly well-mannered businessman, as long as you didn't try to fuck with him," he went on. "Anyways, a few hours ago, someone thought it a good idea to raid his place. A fucking mess!"
"Any idea who it was," I asked. But I already had an inkling which Fleischer confirmed when he threw me a serrated piece of ballistic armor. The golden, stylized "M" of Mindlink twinkled in the light of the RV.
"These fine gentlemen had wounded. And they were none too gentle when they 'asked' me to patch them together so they'd survive the trip back to London," Fleischer snarled, indicating his eye.
"I'm sorry, that's not what-," I began, but Fleischer cut me short, obviously not in the mood to talk about the Mindlink raid any further. I couldn't blame him, really.
"Now, what can I do for you two?"
***
Fleischer wasn't amused. In fact, he was fucking furious when he was done examining Shine. Turns out that she almost fried her optical nerve while using her high-powered combat deck.
"This system was
never
designed for this kind of stress," Fleischer exclaimed. "I had intended it as a cheap alternative for Mindlink implants, to run low-powered school decks or to use data chips and stuff!"
"Can you fix it," Shine asked from the operating table.
"Depends on what you want," Fleischer sighed. "If you want your eyesight back, then yes, I can fix that. I can lace the optic nerve with replacement fibers which will restore your eyesight. But you won't be able to use the eye jack anymore. These fibers are even more sensitive than your normal nervous tissue. If you want to continue using the Mindlink system, you will need to get an implant like everybody else."
"You know I can't afford the implant or the operation," Shine moaned.
"How much is it," I asked, the first thing I'd said in nearly an hour. I was still struggling with the fallout of yesterday's events. Nearly twelve dead only because I thought it would be a clever move to have someone I basically didn't know plant a homing beacon on someone this person hated. Yeah, awesome idea, Parker.
"With the right bribes? Almost half a million Euros," Fleischer explained. "And then I need to see if I can beg for a proper operating theater. Mine won't do for serious neural surgery."
I did some quick calculations. Even after the frivolously expensive deck and my plane trip to Berlin, I should have just enough money for this operation.
"Is there an ATM nearby," I asked Fleischer.
"Actually, you can use my banking software. We can do the money transfer right here," he offered, handing me a card reader.
"Sure, why the hell not. Let's put that cash to good use," I grinned. Shine wanted to protest but I waved her off.
"Listen. I'd rather spend my money on something worthwhile and I can't think of anything more worthwhile than reuniting you with Cat and keeping you healthy," I said softly. I've only known Shine, the real Shine, for the better part of a day but I couldn't imagine another day without her. If Rich were here, he would scoff at me for falling for Shine like that but I flipped him an imaginary finger. Who was he to judge me? He didn't have any problems with his libido or with the fact that his father had presumably chipped him as well. And Shine was the first person who didn't ask for my money or any favors, she just seemed to like me for what I was, a definitive first.
"Are you sure," Shine whispered.
"Who's Cat," Fleischer asked, suspiciously.
"Yes, totally. Hey, it's only money," I chuckled.
While Shine waited for the nanomachines Fleischer had injected into the soft tissue behind the eye to do their thing, I tried to transfer the money over to Fleischer. Of course, it wasn't that easy. By now, the bank where I had deposited my "liberated" money had finished the background check on Harley J. Davidson and realized that he was just a digital smokescreen. The bank did the only logical thing – they flagged the account for a fraud investigation, blocking any access to the remaining money. Bottom line: I was broke.
"So much for the 'knight in shining armor' thing," Fleischer grumbled smugly. I got the distinct impression he didn't like me too much anymore. Shine, off the slab by now, hugged me.
"Thanks for the offer anyways," she breathed, nibbling on my ear lobe. "I appreciate it."
"Hey, I'm not done yet. I've still got this," I said, tapping the implant behind my ear.
"Okay, if you want to fry your brain, do it somewhere else but not here," Fleischer snapped, indicating the door. "And I would be happier if you would leave Shine out of your illegal dealings, you hear?"
